The Gospel Library App helps bring the scriptures, conference addresses, and other gospel works into members’ lives. In this article, a few members share their experiences using Gospel Library.

On The Road

“My husband and I were stopping for lunch on our way to Las Vegas. We went into a fast food restaurant. Near the end of our meal, I noticed there was a scripture reference on the bottom of my cup inside the edge. There was another scripture reference on the burger wrapper. So when we got back on the road, I was curious what scriptures they thought were important to covertly share with the world. I pulled out my iPod and looked at my Gospel Library and read the scriptures out loud. Then we had a little discussion about the scriptures and the restaurant. It actually helped us get through the heavy, construction backed-up traffic by giving us interesting conversation and putting our mind set on a calmer plane.

“It is nice to be young enough to be able to learn some of the new technology and old enough to appreciate it. It’s amazing how things are changing. I am wowed by what I know, which isn't that much, and look forward to learning and exploring new things.”

— Jennifer Wallace, Salt Lake City, Utah

In the Car

"The Gospel Library App on the iPhone is absolutely wonderful! There are two things I always carry with me: my keys and my phone. Crazy enough, I sometimes leave the house without my wallet, but I always have my phone. Having the Gospel Library App on my phone gives me access to the scriptures and other study materials whether I am waiting in a doctor’s office, taking a break at work, or traveling in the car.

"It is exciting to me to have this much access to the scriptures wherever I am, even though I am totally blind. Just to illustrate, my family and I were on our way to visit my parents and siblings for Christmas. The trip takes about six hours by car, and while traveling in the car I was able to use my iPhone with the built-in voice over feature and open the Gospel Library App. I then found the manual I would be teaching out of in the next couple of weeks. I was able to easily review and read the lesson during the trip down.

"Often, I do my scripture study on a laptop using the LDS.org website and I find it extremely useful and convenient to have the notes and other markings I make on my online account sync with the Gospel Library App on my phone. One of my favorite features is the dictation option while searching the database. I love how easy it is to tell the phone a phrase and have the Gospel Library App give me several options where that phrase or those words are found. It searches through its entire library and organizes the results in a way that makes it fast and easy for me to find the desired reference. I also enjoy watching, or hearing the church videos, and am excited to share them with my family.

The app offers a great deal of access to the blind, though it is not completely accessible. A few of the features that have not worked for me include activating the links for footnotes, highlighting text, or navigating by headings in the manuals. With that being said, I am excited for the continued improvements to this app and feel blessed to have access to the scriptures all the time."

— Adam Rushforth, Orem, Utah

At Home

“Nearly every morning before I get up to start the day, I read a few chapters of scripture on my smart phone (Android). The phone is right there on the night stand, it's much easier to hold than my large scriptures, I can read without turning the lights on and disturbing my wife, AND I can quickly link to the cross references.

“Having the library on my phone has really helped me start each day in a good way. Without the app, I probably wouldn't be doing this each day.

“I like to use the hard copy scriptures when teaching or speaking, but when studying for teaching I like to use the library because of the hot links from the lesson manual to the references.

“I love the app. In fact, I should volunteer to help work on it.”

— Geoff Barton, Borrego Springs, California

With Kids

“The Gospel Library app makes it much easier for my ten-year-old to find books in the scriptures. She navigates the app almost as if she were born with innate knowledge to use it. My wife prefers to bring Gospel Library to church because she can easily slip it into the diaper bag and can reference scriptures even if she’s holding or nursing our baby."

— Tom Johnson, Lehi, Utah

At Bedtime

“I use the Gospel Library iPhone app to read the scriptures to my kids while I am putting them to bed (as part of my personal study). They love to see the screen and my soft reading voice puts them to bed fairly quickly. On nights where they have a bit more trouble going to sleep, it is all good because I am getting extra scripture reading in and they are hearing even more from the scriptures. This has made bedtime a much more pleasant experience. Sometimes I will combine this with soft music playing from the Mormon Channel as well.”

— Dave Martin, Herriman, Utah

During Personal Study

“I use gospel library to read with my 5- and 2-year old before they go off to bed.

"I used the app for lessons until recently, as the option to copy has gone. This makes creating keynote presentations much more time consuming and cumbersome.

"I love using the app for personal study. It allows me to look quickly at cross references and make notes where needed."

— Wayne Herridge, Portsmouth, England

At Church

“I used to get a little annoyed when I would see people with their phones out at church. I always thought, 'Why don't you just use the manual or scriptures?' Then, I got my phone, and it's really handy if I forget my book or something. And if you're looking at the lesson it's really cool because you can just click on a scripture reference and it's right there.”

— Nancy Fox, Glenns Ferry, Idaho

While Teaching

“I use the app on my iPad to prepare and give my Sunday lessons. I add my notes and comments right into the lesson/talk and highlight the portions that I want to cover. With the sync feature I always have my iPhone as a backup should I forget the iPad or the battery die.

“We also use the app for Duty to God each Sunday. I have a lot more YM that have scriptures they can read and follow along when doing Duty to God, since they all have the app.”

— bsgillis

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If you haven’t tried the Gospel Library app, you can download it by searching for “LDS Gospel Library” in your mobile application’s store. Gospel Library is available for Apple, Android, Palm, BlackBerry, and feature phones. Gospel Library gives you a mobile version of the standard works, general conference addresses, Church magazines, Hymnbook and Children’s Songbook, and other Gospel content right at your fingertips. Recent updates have eased the way for members to use this tool by synchronizing annotations with My Study Notebook, integrating media playback, and adding other content.

How are you using the Gospel Library app? Feel free to add your experience in the comments below.

Comments

I love having the Gospel Library on my I-Touch. I always am using it. I like that I can put it on night vision when I read. I am light sensitive so it makes it easier to look at. I love being able to read the New Era and Friend without having to purchase them. I don't have kids, but I still love having access to them. I also love having access to the Seminary and Institute manuals to reference them. I love being able to take everything with me. I want to get an IPad so I can make my own notes. Thanks for doing this for us. I can see the hand of God in this. It will make adding more and more scriptures and other church material to be carried with us as members.

As Branch SS Pres. & Asst. Clerk, a former Seminary teacher, former Ward Mission Leader, etc, etc....I've become so dependent upon so many different books, that it's become impossible to carry a briefcase or book bag that large. The Gospel Library App is a huge blessing. Besides it's immense diversity, the convenience of having all of those pearls of wisdom at the tips of my fingers no matter where I am, is just more than I could have imagined when I first joined the church, 24 yrs ago. Hometeaching, missionary opportunities, Family Home Evening, Council Meetings, just passing some quiet time, or whatever. How has the Lord blessed us? Only to the extent that we use it, I expect. Magnificent!

I used mine today to look up scriptures discussed by our LDS Tour Guide while visiting Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula. It was great to have while we discussed Mayan History at these remarkable sites. The Notes feature allowed me to make some unique observations on the scriptures we looked up.

While I appreciate having the scriptures at my finger tips and love the Gospel Library app, I find that for actual *reading*, I prefer Kindle-style page navigation over the endless scrolling. For one, it's easier to tap the side with a spare pinky during lunch than to scrape the screen up. Would really like either a simple page-down tap or an export to kindle-readable format.

I am in the US Air Force and currently deployed. I fly on tankers and have a lot of "drone time" on the way to/from Afghanistan and between air refuelings. I bring my phone with me and read from the Gospel Library app. Recently I decided to scroll down and start from the beginning with the 1974 General Conference and the 1971 Ensign. What a spiritual feast! There is so much to be learned from the prophets and apostles from the not-so-distant past that applies to us today.

We use the app a lot. My wife loves it for being able to take care of a baby at church while still having her scriptures open to the passage being discussed in Sunday School. I love everyone's ideas. I think I will be better about spending more time in the scriptures. I agree with Jacob. I think having a page-turn navigation would be better than scrolling if possible.

I love Gospel Library on my Android 4.0 Motorola Xoom. As a tech geek and Stake Tech Specialist I always have my tablet and love having all the scriptures and magazines with me. Keep up the great work. The most recent update that allows syncing is fantastic. I can prepare home teaching lessons and mark passages and set bookmarks on my computer at work then its all synced on my tablet.

One of the unique ways I love using it is to help with my foreign language study. I can bring up 2 windows- one in Spanish and one in English - of scriptures, church manuals, or magazine articles. I have been able to learn so much spiritually, as well as with increased language skills. I am anxiously awaiting the audio in Spanish to step up my study even more.

One of the unique ways I love using it is to help with my foreign language study. I can bring up 2 windows- one in Spanish and one in English - of scriptures, church manuals, or magazine articles. I have been able to learn so much spiritually, as well as with increased language skills. I am anxiously awaiting the audio in Spanish to step up my study even more.

Hey, how do you do this? Great idea but I'm not sure how to do it. thanks

The Gosple Library is first class works well all that information on the Gosple at your finger tips an other example of the Gosple working it's self into the 21st century first class it is a great tool to both learning and teach the Gosple even a 60year old like my self can use it first class 5Star

I have recently downloaded Gospel Library to my Blackberry Curve however, the hymns and BOM teacher manual is empty and i can't use it. THe other contents such as scriptures and teachings of the president are ok. Can you help me with this one? Thanks

I work overnight as a custodian and pursue my doctorate during the day. The ability to put my headphones in and listen to the scriptures and conference talks is sometimes the only way I can make it through the long nights at work. Before the ability to listen was added, I would sit down for a couple of minutes to read a chapter and end up dozing off. What a blessing this has been!

It's extremely handy! I just was given a calling to primary again and lesson manuals are scarce sometimes. Allows me to be prepared.I love the way that in the middle of the lesson you can touch a highlighted scripture reference and it takes you to the verses to read from the book.Thank you all who have and are working on this incredible app.

Now That u mention it.. that app has save my life in Ssssooo many wys so far.. u see ,I live my life kind of fast, and when Sunday comes the majority of time i don't get to read my class .so I get to read it while on my way to church. ..

I love this app. One of my favorite features is that I can open different books or manuals up and switch between them. However my least favorite thing is that every time the app is updated, I lose all my content and have to redownload. Very annoying and in some cases I didn't have my scriptures while in class because I didn't realize an update had been applied and I lost all the books. Plus there are so many books to download, it's time consuming. Now I only download a few because I know by the next update they'll be gone again.

I've tried to switch back to a previous scripture app I used to use before this one, but it wasn't as polished as this one....so that's my only gripe.

I love the way I can have my scriptures and Conference talks etc.I like the way I can refer to the Sunday School lessons, and be prepared when I am at the class. I also like not having to carry loads of books to church. I have everything I need on my I touch. Thanks for the new version of the Scripture.Happy Australian

I love the app because of the fact that it helps me to study more. I've downloaded several materials in both English and Gagana Samoa, just so I can hopefully learn Samoan more or at least understand. It also comes in handy when my Mum and I are debating over something or if my sister needs to look up something for her studies. But I always carry my quad when I go to church even though I have the Gospel Library on my ipad and iphone because you never know if someone forgot their scriptures at home.

I have 2 LG Allys and have the app on both. Last week, when the priesthood and relief society were in a joint meeting and the bishopric was giving the lesson, they used Handbook II as their primary source, and I was following along on my app. The brother next to me shook my hand after I showed him the actual material, and said, "I love that you have that app."It is also an excellent resource if you want to get to a certain scripture and you don't want to dig out your sticks.

I only recently discovered how cool this app really is. The first time I used it I was waiting in a long ferry line-up on a Saturday evening and lamenting that I didn't have anything to read, but then remembered ... 'wait a minute, I have access to my scriptures and Ensign!' What was particularly cool was that it didn't matter that it was too dark, because the screen is readable even then! I love it!

Hi :)I'd really like to find out how cool this app is! Just upgraded my BBerry (Bold 9000) from os 4.5 to 5.0 but even after plenty of attempts and trouble shooting, haven't felt the love yet. App in on but no content. (content is downloaded on both device and SD card). Haven't gotten an answer from other churchtech avenues yet. Helpdanny - dfountaine@gmail.com

I have been so happy to have my scriptures with me as we travel, via my phone, so much easier and ALOT lighter...plus having a 'scripture a day' has been uplifting and usually matches what I need to hear that day.Thanks so much for that app too!

I love having this app in my android phone. In fact this is the unique way I can take study notes in the Scriptures. In the scriptures.lds.org site in Spanish this feature existed, but then they took it off, and I couldn't use it anymore. But through this app I can take those notes and upload them and they are available in the site. I hope in the future the feature would be reestablished and then all those notes would appear over the scriptures again.

Last Night, February 11, 2012 my Gospel Library "Crash data found" with accompanying text "Gospel Library quit unexpectedly. Would you like to send an anonymous crash report so we can fix the problem? If I say yes or not my screen goes back to home page and Gospel Library cannot be used including all scriptures. I REALLY NEED HELP! I have lessons on my iPad today and cannot use it. I do not know where else to get in touch with anyone for help. Please respond to my email Kentnels@gmail.com or call 801.558.0246 PLEASE HELP

One of the things that seems to derail our scripture study is the 10 minutes that it takes for everyone to find their scriptures. Now, must of us have the scripture app on a phone or an ipod. We read at night, but sometimes we will read in the car if we know we won't have time at night. At home, if for some reason, someone doesn't have scriptures with them, I will take my Iphone 4S, and mirror the screen to our television using Apple TV. With that, anyone can follow along reading on the screen. With all these tools, we really have no excuse for not reading our scriptures together as a family.

I really enjoy having the scriptures with me at ALL times. I really like them for my Ipad &Iphone....we can read anywhere ,any time ,...what a blessing to live in these latter Days! In reality, there is no excuse not to read the scriptures!!!

This app nees a rework and the developers need to read the google android accessible outline I sent to them via my gmail. For a blind android user its not a tool I would use because the text is in a PDF or simular scanned document which "talkback" "Google's android screenreader for blind people" can not read. All I have is a play button with someone reading slower then my phone's "talkback" can read. Please use talkback in your development cycle when testing the "gospel library" app. All accessible documents have been sent to the developer, I attempted to keep a dialog with the devs but some where the ball has been dropped. You can reach me at danny.mathis@gmail.com for any developer working on this app.

It would be really nice to have a way to share notebooks with other users. I normally organize lessons (SS and EQ) in my iPad using the Gospel App notebooks. If I could share these with the class, then they would have quick links to all the scriptures/conference talks that aren't in the student manual. This would be HUGE for the older generations that are a little bit less... shall we say, adept, with their ipads